WITTERINGS -
FANTASY BOB'S CASUAL OBSERVATIONS ON CARLTON, CRICKET, LIFE AND ALL THAT OTHER STUFF

Friday, 8 February 2013

Monopoly

Cricketers the world over will be considering the outcome of their voting behaviour having elected a cat to replace the iron as a token in the Monopoly game.

From the cricketer's point of view, the choice given to them as possible new tokens for the game was uninspiring - a guitar, a ring, a robot, a helicopter and a cat.

Frankly Fantasy Bob did not fancy any of them and did not see what was wrong with the existing tokens, so he withheld his vote.

He will miss the iron. In his playing days he tried to pick the battleship but sometimes the choice of token was keenly contested within FB's family. He knew he was on a hiding to nothing when he ended up with the boot, or even worse the Scottie dog. He might as well have declared himself bankrupt at that point. But with the battleship he was sure he would end up with hotels all around the board particularly in Mayfair and the money would roll in. FB's memories of Monopoly are accompanied by rain slamming against caravan windows. Not cricketing weather.

Even as a child FB wondered at the choice of locations on the board. Nowadays there are versions for every city, but back in pre-history there was only the London board. FB did not understand why neither Lords nor the Oval was there, the London locations of greatest meaning to him. Marylebone Station was on the board - a place of no singificance compared to Marylebone Cricket Club which was ignored. And the more recently created Edinburgh Board is equally defective - there is no place for Grange Loan, headquarters of go ahead cricket club Carlton.

How any cricketer is expected to maintain any interest in this game is beyond FB. But there is hope.

There is even a Manchester United version of the game in which the streets are replaced by players. FB thinks there may be a gap in the market for an IPL version with players and franchises for sale - and being hit for six rather than going to jail.

But a game would have to have a cricketing set of tokens. FB looks forward to the world wide election in which fans are invited to choose what they are. He is sure the box will get a good number of votes.